Australian cricket is in a dark place right now. Whereas England's preparations so far have been excellent, Australia look like a team in disarray. Crucially for England everyone is fit and ready to play.

This was not the case on either of the past two Ashes tours. In 2002-03 Darren Gough, Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff were all struggling. And in 2006‑07 we had injuries to Michael Vaughan, Ashley Giles and Marcus Trescothick. Not this time. This means that the management knows exactly what their best XI is. So the team has had a chance to settle down and play well in their two warm-up matches.

Compare that to Australia's build-up. On the two Ashes tours I managed the Australian pundits used to accuse us of using injuries as excuses. Now all the noise about who is and who is not fit is coming from their side. Injury bulletins are popping up from left, right and centre. Michael Clarke has a back problem, Simon Katich has had trouble with his thumb and Doug Bollinger has been struggling with a stomach muscle strain. The selectors say these niggles explain why they included 17 men in their squad for the first Test but picking so many players just shows the uncertainty in their thinking.

The team have won only one of their past eight matches, so they have no momentum. That bad run also means there must be doubts about Ricky Ponting's captaincy. But whereas before they had a natural successor lined up in Clarke, right, now there are serious questions being asked about whether he deserves to be the heir apparent. Mike Hussey has been told that his place is under threat from the two young batsmen in the squad, Usman Khawaja and Callum Ferguson. But picking either of those two would mean throwing a debutant in for the first Ashes Test. Australia also have a problem with their spinner, Nathan Hauritz. Half the country seems to want him in the team, the other half wants him out. And again, the guy they have brought in to give him competition has never played a Test. On top of all that, they have just sacked one of their selectors, Merv Hughes.

Every signal the Australians are sending out speaks of the confusion in their camp and the breakdown in their planning for this series. It all makes you wonder exactly where Australian cricket is at the moment. You have to go back more than 30 years, to the era when Kerry Packer had tempted away the best players to World Series Cricket, to find the last time the team were in such a muddled state. And at least back then it was obvious that they still had some talented players in reserve. At the moment you would struggle to know if that was true of this team, simply because none of the young players has been capped yet.

A good way to judge the health of the Australian team is this: Between 2000 and 2007, every single one of their players would have been snapped up by the English county sides. Not only that, they had about 10 players who could not even get in the team who would have been picked up as well. Look at Australia now and there are not many players in the team that the counties would be scrambling over each other to sign up for a season, let alone 10 more from outside the squad.

So there is no doubt in my mind that England start this series as favourites. Of course they have to be careful, Australia are a side that come out fighting when they find themselves in sticky situations. But the biggest worry I have about England is how well they will cope with being in such a strong position. It is not a situation they have been in very often, and in recent years they have always been happier being the underdogs. The risk is that when you are the favourite you just start to get a little cocky, your work ethic slips and you stop practising with the necessary intensity. When England are favourites they seem to falter. They are not wanting for anything at the moment, so if they do not perform they are going to start questioning themselves and their ability to live up to that favourites tag.

This is where Andrew Strauss's influence will be key. It is great for England that he started the tour so well, with two centuries in two matches. Otherwise the Australians would have been quick to pile more pressure on him by picking him apart in the press. Their bowlers will still be looking to come hard at him when the first Test starts, but he is a tough nut. And he will have learned a lot from the last tour in 2006‑07, when the most successful English players were the ones who were the most aggressive in the field.

Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood were England's leading run scorers, and they both took a ruthless approach to the opposition. Strauss had a similar mindset, but he suffered a series of poor umpiring decisions which stopped him going on to make big scores. He will have to set a hard, unyielding tone for the team in Australia this time if England are going to take advantage of the home side's poor preparations.